servations. He will see and reflect upon a thousand things which he otherwise would never have noticed; things, too, that may shed a volume of light upon the character either of ourselves or others. It is a most happy position to sit in the midst of actors of every kind governed and wafted about by emotions of all descriptions-you an independent, and to them an unknown observer; prying, as it were, unseen, into their hearts.

I set out to write a love letter and find I have written a moral essay-I am pretty much of a dfool.

On October 27, 1833, Menefee's first child was born, a son, and he was named Alexander Hamilton Menefee. Richard H. Menefee, like another distinguished Kentuckian, Gertrude Atherton, believed that Hamilton was the greatest of our statesmen. He placed him above Washington, Jefferson, or any of the other illustrious founders of our Republic.

Menefee's joy was to be ephemeral, for on December 6, 1834, his son died. But a few years later he was given a son who was to perpetuate his name and carry on his traditions.

The catalogue of the Transylvania Law School for January, 1835, shows that Menefee was again in attendance at the school, probably doing some special work. A mistake occurred in the catalogue by which his middle name was abbreviated with a "B" instead of with an "H." The catalogue also shows that he was still living in Mt. Sterling, and the L. B. which he had won three years before was printed after his name.

The famous Kentucky Chief Justice, George

Robertson was assisting Professor Mayes in the school at this time. Joshua F. Bell, of Danville, who was afterward one of the six Kentucky Commissioners to the Washington Peace Conference of 1861, and Lazarus W. Powell, of Henderson, afterward the twentieth Governor of Kentucky, were matriculates of the school during the time that Menefee was there.

Menefee returned to Mt. Sterling, where he continued to practice and attend to his duties as Commonwealth's Attorney for his district. Some time in the winter of 1835-1836 he sent his resignation to Governor James T. Morehead, who had become Governor at the death of Breathitt, which occurred February 21, 1834, as Commonwealth's Attorney for the eleventh judicial district, and announced himself as a candidate for the Kentucky House of Representatives, from Montgomery County, to succeed David Heron and James McKee. His candidacy was received favorably by his people, and he, with Gen. Samuel L. Williams, who had been at the battle of River Raisin, and who was to serve for nearly a quarter of a century in the legislature, were sent as delegates from Montgomery County to the State Convention of Kentucky Whigs, which met in Lexington on April 19, 1836.

Judge John Green,' of Lincoln County, who had studied law under Henry Clay and who was a prominent circuit judge for many years, was chosen as president of the convention. Five vice-presidents and five secretaries were

Lexington Observer and Kentucky Reporter for April 27, 1836.

then appointed and the convention got down to business.

Green's first appointment was to select a committee of fifteen men to propose suitable resolutions of Whig principles for the consideration of the convention. The secretaries were appointed to ascertain and report to the convention the names of the delegates in attendance and the counties that they represented. Such prominent Kentuckians as Garrett Davis of Bourbon, Richard Hawes of Clark, Leslie Combs, Edwin Byrant, Charlton Hunt, and the Wickliffes of Fayette, Robert P. Letcher of Garrard, Cassius M. Clay from Madison, John B. Thompson from Mercer, and William B. Kinkead from Woodford County, were present.

Clay took a prominent part in the deliberations of the convention. His first motion was that a committee of thirteen should be appointed to report a plan for the complete union of the Kentucky Whigs in the coming August elections. His motion was adopted. The convention then went into a committee of the whole with a view of adopting such measures that would insure harmony in the ranks of the Whigs of Kentucky. Through its chairman it resolved to raise a committee of general consultation to consist of as many members from each county represented in the convention as such county may have representatives in the State legislature. It was further resolved that the county delegates appoint the member or members of said committee for each county, whose duty it shall be to ascertain the public sentiment of their respective

counties by conference with their colleagues in the convention now assembled. And said committee is ordered to report upon such subjects as it shall deem proper to the convention. It was further provided that each county represented in the convention have at least one member upon the committee. For Fayette County, Charlton Hunt, Judge A. K. Wooley and Robert Wickliffe, Jr., were appointed to serve on the committee, and from Montgomery County General Williams and Menefee were appointed, with many others.

As a second resolution the chairman of the committee thought it expedient for the convention to recommend to the people a suitable person for Vice-President of the United States. Both resolutions were adopted and the convention adjourned until the next day.

At the beginning of the second session of the convention, President Green read letters from James Clark and Charles Wickliffe, saying that, although they had been nominated by the legislature for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, if the convention did not sanction the legislature's action they would withdraw.

General Williams, Menefee's colleague, offered a resolution that Gen. William H. Harrison for President, Francis Granger for VicePresident, James Clark for Governor and Chas. A. Wickliffe for Lieutenant-Governor, be recommended by the convention to the people of Kentucky as suitable persons for the positions. His resolution was unanimously concurred in, and he then moved that a committee of four be appointed to notify

Clark and Wickliffe of the convention's action. Gen. Leslie Combs, with General Williams and two other gentlemen, were appointed by Green as a committee of notification.

The services of Acting-Governor Morehead and of United States Senator Henry Clay were commended. After the adoption of a resolution to the effect that the Harrison committee of Louisville be requested to combine their labors to promote the Whig cause in Kentucky, in co-operation with the Central committee of Lexington, and a committee appointed to see that the business transacted by the convention be printed, the convention adjourned, sine die, and Menefee went back to Mt. Sterling to begin an active campaign for the legislature. That he spoke at every corner and cross-roads of Montgomery County is certain. Although the name of his opponent for the legislature is lost to history we may be sure that the Van Buren Democrats put up the strongest man in Montgomery against the young Whig, who was just at the beginning of his career. Practically all of the Kentucky newspapers were at this time devoted to the Whig cause, and, of course, did not give the name of Menefee's opponent. Kentucky at one time in her history had a Secretary of State who could not see that the election returns for 1836 might be valuable for a historian of that period, and he destroyed them as so much rubbish. Surely the State's foremost novelist is right when he said: "Write the biographies of the Kentuckians who have been engaged in national and local politics, and you have largely the history of the State of Kentucky.